no boys allowed in the room!!!!

I FOUND IT!!!! It is Dressing Rich: A Guide to Classic Chic for Women with More Taste than Money.

I present to you http://blog.shopittome.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/dressing-rich.jpg

The fashion sketches alone are worth buying a used copy on amazon.com -- I want this book.

LOL 1988* RUN AWAY FROM THE MAUVE.

*This is a guess because carbon-14 shoulder pad dating difficult at the angle of Cheryl Tiegs clone pose.

1988? It looks earlier to me - mid-80s maybe.

1982! Oh yeah, it's a doozy. On other other hand, it namechecks people like Dame Edith Sitwell, which is how I first learned of her existence, and she was a byword in my mind for a certain kind of grandiose, turbaned fashion for oh, well, STILL.

I learned of Dame Edith Sitwell from a Morrissey t-shirt, I think.

Not to mention things like sketches of shoes with worn-down heels and hems that hang askew, with the instructions to get thee to a cobbler or dry cleaner ASAP to fix them, because SLOPPINESS IS NEVER Q.

xp hahaha oh yes I didn't have a Morissey kind of childhood.

I think we need to point out when threads are "Non-Q"

There is actually an artist's sketch of THIS photograph in the section about fashion exceptions, and how some people simply make something their life's look but that it's best to do that when you know the rules already.

http://images.artnet.com/artwork_images_424158012_438719_sanford-roth.jpg

I'm sorry, I must be boring the shit out of everyone, but I am tbh really really excited to re-find this book. Every page will probably unlock some childhood memory of mine, of sitting around reading it and practicing thinking about being a grown-up lady.

no that book sounds awesome!

I mean I was SIX when this book came out and I re-read it extensively. My childhood idea of being a woman was having clothes like the ones in this book, wearing Chanel No 5, and owning shoes that made noise on the wood floors.

Book sounds awesome and hilarious and you should not apologise.

I think I first heard of Edith Sitwell during high school, when I wanted to know what the Bloomsbury Set did.

That book is totally awesome. Morbidly curious about Does This Make Me Look Fat, too.

Morbidly curious about Does This Make Me Look Fat, too.

Me too!

Although I think a more constructive question to ask oneself is, "Does this fit well?"

I desperately want you to get this book and devote a thread to it, L.!

I'm going to do it, and then there's going to be a PERSONAL STYLE POLL from the allowable "types", complete w illustrations.

Awesome!

I can't wait!

my fashion icons: fraulein maria, laverne, shirley, little lord fauntleroy.

can't wait for this poll.

owning shoes that made noise on the wood floors.

THIS!!!!!!

tehresa i just friended you on facebook because you're the only girls-only person aside from laurel whose name i know
i'm not a giant weirdo i promise (well i am, but i won't embarrass you)

haha ok

i am excited about this book! will have to look for some old style guides at thrifts. in middle school, my mom subscribed me to seventeen magazine because every girl got it (i wasn't cool enough to know about sassy) and i remember being totally confused as to how they put outfits together and where they bought nice clothes, since you couldn't buy anything cool at the crappy mall in my hometown, it didn't even have the gap. took until high school to discover all the best stuff was at goodwill.

boots: old and beat-up steel toed docs from high school that i refuse to part with but never wear, vintage stephane kelian combat boots from the 80s, apc black that i don't wear enough (never been keen on wearing the boots-over-jeans look), simple black charles david ankle boots with about a 4" heel, ld tuttle dark grey ankle boots, chie mihara dark indigo lace-up (mid calf), brown mid-calf apc, and my ll bean duck boots.

i would prob buy more (don't need to, but i would) if i didn't wear size 11 which most of the time cool labels either don't make or sell out v fast before it goes on sale! suzy do you mean the giant clunky black balenciaga ankle boots, the ones from that collection with all the egg-shaped coats (i think it was fall 06?)

i'm wondering if i'd be better off if i didn't care about clothes and shoes tbh. but it is so much fun! i think my biggest influence for good and bad is the cool girls at catholic school, they wore plaid with argyle, baggy tops and cardigans, moccasins, bomber jackets, clashing colors, and stuff borrowed from older brothers or from the men's department.

i wish someone would just scan this whole thing and post to the interwebs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_Preppy_Handbook

OK I ordered a copy of DRESSING RICH yesterday for less than $10 incl shipping. I'm torn -- I can't decide whether we'll be rolling in the aisles, or whether it will mostly be surprisingly sensible advice (with a few mauve exceptions). WAIT AND SEE

i hope it's better than this thing was
http://www.conair-store.com/imagesEdp/p19795b.jpg

surprise i am not glamourous in different artificial seasonal lighting

Well, I was planning on rescuing my copy of TOPH from MN but did not travel this Xmas, boo. Honestly, I don't know why someone in publishing doesn't reissue so L, you should get on that.

Sure, I'll have them re-issue it in a special children's edition.

Do any of you know what a "convertible foot" is in relation to tights?

Also, I used to have one of those make up mirrors, and I kind of wish I still did, mostly for the magnification for eyebrow plucking.

Yeah, Jenny, although I'm only aware of them as a dancer's thing? They're tights with a lengthwise slit cut into the foot and bound off (so it doesn't rip or run any more) so that you can pull them down over your feet or roll them up around your ankles.

http://secure.hostdeziners.com/www_theshoeroom_ca/store/images/product_images/6668.jpg

Thanks, Laurel!

I'm tights shopping, as I had to retire two totally sprung pair this morning and despite doubling up again today, I nearly died out there walking from the dentist to work. I read pretty good things about Dankso tights as far as them being thick and opaque and indestructible, but I wasn't sure what a "convertible foot" was. I think I will go for the regular ones - I definitely do not need a hole in the foot of my tights.

I mean I hate leggings so much, why would I pay MORE for tights that can turn into them? Yeah.

fact: i am going crazy trying not to look at duo boot sale

tell me they eat puppies for their midmorning snack
tell me that they will make my feet turn into tiny warthogs instead of feet
make me not spend tons of money on these boots!

i just bought two perfectly decent new pairs of boots to replace old ones that had become decrepit. i am not in the market for fashionable boots.

yet

ok i'm over it.

Amanda, I took my Duo boots to the shoe place to have them polished and waterproofed and the guy there said that they were very nice boots and that I got an incredible deal. I'm saying that if you get a pair, you should not feel guilty because they are totally Q.

i know but i have SO MANY BOOTS and am somehow incapable of getting rid of any of them. i just realized that i have this problem called my "clothing archive" which is really just a bunch of shit i don't wear anymore. but i'm keeping it to remind myself of something. what? i'm not sure. what i used to think was appropriate? what i used to like to wear? because it took me a long time to find it and therefore i can't give it away? because it reminds me of that conversation i had or that place i went? i dunno. i should not buy these boots right now. i have stopped looking at the website.

i think i'm over it.

AHAHAHAHAH oh dear. I do love you both.

Amanda, if you want to reduce your clothing archive, maybe you should take pictures of the items in the archive, note what it is about that item that you want to remember and keep a record either in electronic or actual format. Then you can give the item itself away. I mean, only if you care. If not, I apologize for offering a solution when you are not actually looking for one.

"just in case" it sits in your closet. "just in case" is always spared during spring cleaning. hasn't happened yet, but any day it could be called into service. this is the item that will have your back, on your back. sometimes, having "just in case" ready to go on the old hanger works like an umbrella on a cloudy day, miraculously, and mysteriously staving off any need whatsoever for it.

A pretty little blog post that I found while googling something else the other day.

no i AM looking for one. that is a good idea. i need to say goodbye to some stuff and i just can't find a way to do it without, i dunno, a ritual burning or something.

just in case is most of my closet. ok, closets.

photos and a ritual burning sound good, actually.

Okay, good. I'm super sensitive to the "offering solutions when none were requested" thing because my coworker keeps doing it to me, such as the other day when she suggested I take some classes on how to be more self sufficient because I joked that when Jeff went out of town, I get kind of feral and eat over the sink and sleep on my clothes.

I sort of want to tell her that last night for dinner I had a cold piece of leftover frozen pizza and a bowl of cornflakes but then she'll start sending me easy recipes that I can freeze and eat later or something.

Amanda, make some room in your closet because I still have that thing to send you! When I remember. Maybe I will look for more than one thing, just to make the package worthwhile. You won't need the jacket until spring anyway, more's the pity....